I survived (a short story by mboddz)

**mboddz751** 5th June 2010, 2:15 am

Ryan Bell awoke in a frantic display of movement, swinging his arms in all directions, and thrashing his feet against the cold metallic surface he was bound to. The sobering feeling of water running down his face brought his senses back to earth as his watering eyes began to adjust to his surroundings. A small red light light below him barely illuminated the dismal scene. Ryan instinctively reached for his chest, found a button on top of it, and pressed down on it without a second thought.

The sudden feeling of weightlessness filled Ryan as gravity took over and sent him crashing head first down next to the little red light. Due to the nature of the situation and him just waking up; it hadn't even occurred to Ryan that he might be upside down in till gravity gave him a blow to the head. He quickly brought his hand to the back of his head and ran his fingers through his moist hair. He didn't think he was bleeding; no he was sure he wasn't, none of the liquid on his scalp felt thick enough. In fact it felt more like water..............was it raining?

Ryan held his breath and closed his eyes in an attempt to fine tune his hearing. As he expected, the soft and unmistakable sound of the pitter patter of rain falling on metal filled his ears. Now more aware of his atmosphere, Ryan groggily rolled over and came face to face with another pair of eyes. A Scream worked its way up his throat but Ryan cupped his hand over his mouth and managed to trap the impending shriek. The eyes however didn’t blink or even move for that matter. The glazed over pupils seemed to be looking right through him, staring off into another world.

“Hey are you alright?” Ryan managed to squeak out in a hoarse whisper.

No response…………….

“God damn it, are you ok………..alright hold on I’m gonna call for help.”

The young man’s hand shot down into his pocket, desperately rummaging for his cell phone. Ryan felt keys, a pencil or pen, and a thin paper card. Suddenly his fingers ran across the smooth rectangular surface that was his phone. Quickly yanking it out, he flipped it over and proceeded to press his fingers on the touch pad. The normally reassuring vibrations and beeps of the pad being pressed on were completely absent.

Upon closer inspection Ryan saw the giant crack running down the screen that had kept it from working.

“Well there’s the problem…….my phone got busted up but I survived…….” muttered Ryan.

An idea suddenly crossed Mr. Bell’s mind as he raised his phone up to his mouth.

“Call 911”

The phone processed his command and began the mundane dial tone before being suddenly cut off a constant beeping. Mr. Bell raised the phone to his mouth once more and softly spoke the command a second time. Again his order was met with the same rapid beeping.

“How the fuck are the emergency services busy” Ryan asked himself; this time with a slightly more aggravated tone.

There was one thing the phone was still useful for however. Ryan held out his phone in front of him and pointed it towards where he had seen the pair of eyes. The phone’s light bore down on where the two white spheres had been and revealed a middle-aged woman suspended upside down. She was in a seat very similar to his own; however it didn’t look like one found in a car. Ryan slowly panned the light to the right of him with the light from his phone cutting through the darkness like a sword.

There were more people; many were sprawled out across what must have been the ceiling, others still suspended in those damned seats, and some just slouched against the rounded walls. All of them lay motionless in eternal slumber, a few with their eyes closed, but most lay sleeping with the horrifying gaze that looked right through him and peered into a far away land.

“Oh my god………they’re all dead…………and I survived.” Ryan whispered with a small smile forming on his lips.

It seemed as if he was in a long tin can with little round windows every couple of feet, and little red lights glowing faintly on the flipped ceiling. Ryan spied a door at the end and quickly made his way over to it, being careful not to step on the deceased. Beyond the door was a tiny little compartment with two seats and a glass window in front of them. The occupants of the seats lay dangling upside down just as many of the other occupants were. However, these two were different. Their olive drab suits covered with patches and badges, along with the protective helmets that covered their heads immediately gave away who they were.

“Jesus Christ……….I’m in a helicopter………everyone’s dead……but I survived.”

The canopy in the cockpit was mangled, shattered, bent; leaving Ryan with an obvious route of escape. It was still raining outside when Mr. Bell finally hauled himself out on to the wet and cold asphalt. He stood up, turned around, and stared at the twisted wreckage he had just crawled out of.

“I don’t know what the hell happened…….but I survived.” Ryan said with the once small smile now growing in size.

Suddenly, an alien sound pierced the veil of silence. It was footsteps……….and lots of them. Wheeling around, Ryan saw numerous silhouettes walking across street some yards down. The smile that was on Mr. Bells face now burst into a full fledged grin.
“HEY OVER HERE, I SURVIVED!” Ryan began screaming.

The silhouettes stopped walking and began looking around, still unaware of the source of the noise.

“I’M OVER HERE PEOPLE, I’M ALIVE. DO YOU HEAR ME I SURVIVED!” yelled Ryan again.

The figures were now running towards him; sprinting almost.

“YES OVER HERE, THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT BUT I’M OK….I SURV---“

A knot built up in Mr. Bell’s throat. Something didn’t feel right. The way they were running; it was almost like they were putting their body into it. It didn’t look coordinated at all.

Ryan’s colossal grin of confidence disappeared as the first group of his saviors passed under a streetlamp. Ryan saw them, but they didn’t seem to see him. Almost as if they were looking right through him……..as if they were staring off into another land………………………………………

THE END